User blog:John Pan/Aethiopian Dragon
The FCI needed a large fleet of light fighters to provide the raw power to overcome superpower air forces. It also needed to double as a strike fighter. The MiG-29 was in too few numbers- 'just' 2000. Plus, the South Americans had taken all of them in and upgraded them to the MiG-35 standard. So, the FCI had to look for another: and the F-16 was the perfect answer. Although miss-matched in the A,B,C,D,E,F,I and V variants, with a little upgrading and polishing, the FCI could potentially field 4,500 benchmark-grade 4+ generation fighters. How much better can it get? The FCI operated 4,500 Aethiopian Dragons (F-16Vs) in 2034 1 AIRCRAFT Main Armament The Aethiopian Dragon is equipped with the SABR AESA. It is armed with an internal M61A2 Vulcan 20mm Gatling. Two hardpoints are under the fuselage, four are under the wing, and two are on the wingtips. They can carry a variety of armament. A typical air-to-air combat layout consists of two AIM-120Ds, two AIM-9Xs, and two 500-gallon fuel tanks. An air-to-ground strike mission consists of two AIM-9Xs, and a mix of six Mk.82s/ two AGM-65 Mavericks and two 500-gallon fuel tanks. A SEAD flight normally carries two HARM Targeting Pods, two AGM-88 HARM, two AIM-9Xs and two AIM-120Ds. M61A2 The M61A2 Vulcan fires 20mm AP rounds a a rate of 6,000 rounds a minute. The Aethioptian Dragon carries 500 rounds to feed the cannon. AIM-9X The AIM-9X is the final product of the Raytheon AAM. It packs a 25lb proximity-detonation HE warhead, an excellent IIR seeker, and the Box Office vector-thruster guidance system that allows it to preform 60G maneuvers. This makes it very, very hard to evade within 25 kilometers. AIM-120D The final Slammer, the AIM-120D packs in the original AMRAAM package- an active radar homing seeker, a 40lb warhead- with a rocket-boosted Ramjet motor that allows it to hit speeds of Mach 4.5 as it kills a target over 100 kilometers away. Mk.82 The Mk.82 is a 500lb bomb. The FCI deploys them on triple-mount racks, and unfortunately, they are unguided. AGM-65 The AGM-65 Maverick is a tried-and-tested anti-tank/ship missile. The weapon employs an active millimeter seeker to guide a 320lb blast-fragmentation warhead onto a target 25 kilometers away. AGM-88 HARM The AGM-88 is a tried-and-tested anti-radiation missile. Homing on the radar emissions of a target radar, the HARM is able to smash apart any radar site on Earth with its 145lb high explosive preformed fragmentation warhead. It can dive to a target at over Mach 4.5. Upgrades None. Armor The Aethiopian Dragon has nothing in terms of kinetic protection. It does have a sophisticated EW suite, which includes a DRFM jammer, a multiband radio scrambler, and a radar jammer. Chaff and flares are always standard. Propulsion The Aethiopian Dragon is powered by a single F110-GE-100 turbofan engine. This provides it with 30,00lb of thrust, and can push the aircraft to a maximum of Mach 2. It has an unrefueled combat radius of 650 km, but this can be enhanced by 10% via external fuel tanks. Category:Blog posts